Bobbie Whiddon Leadership Award

New Orleans chefs visit USS NEW ORLEANS

Story by EM3 Rose Bacus

On Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008, the USS NEW ORLEANS reconnected with her namesake
city. With the support of the Navy League of New Orleans, Chefs Greg
Collier (executive chef of Redfish Grill, New Orleans, La) and Darrin
Finkel, (executive chef of Jazz Kitchen, Anaheim, CA), strapped on
aprons in the ships galley. Together with the ships Culinary
Specialists, they treated the crew to some mouthwatering Cajun cooking.
Catfish Courtbuillion, Cajun Pork Grillades, and Creole Jambalaya made a
welcome break from the 21-day menu.

Mardi Gras beads and other Bourbon
Street memorabilia adorned the mess decks, and DJ Drew Miller of 88.3
Jazz FM served up toe-tapping Cajun and Creole tunes. Commander Brad
Skillman, the ships captain, thanked Greg and Darrin for a most
memorable and delicious meal.

We sat down with head chef, Gregg Collier to talk about his experience on USS NEW ORLEANS:

Q: How does it feel catering to military personnel?

A: We feel good that we were able to give the New Orleans crew a nice
meal and just try and return the favor of giving to you because we could
never do as much for you as you do for us and the country.

Q: How was it working in a Galley and supervising in the Mess Decks?
Is military jargon/equipment/ procedure any different from a 4 star
kitchen?

A: Working with the crew was great! I almost wish that I could take some
of the guys back with us, but Uncle Sam wont allow that. The only real
difference is the equipment, there were no burners and a couple of other
utensils. Other than that they clean up directly after meals, are
prepared, and are very organized.

Q: Coming into this what were your expectations? What will you take
from this experience?

A: We really didnt know what to expect and that
was the exciting part about this entire experience. We truly believe
that the adopt a ship program is really beneficial and we think that it
should be continued. We learned a lot about how the ship works and what
it takes to cook for this amount of people day in and day out.